Commission hopes religious freedom report will serve as ‘call to action’

WASHINGTON (ABP) — An independent government panel that monitors global religious-freedom conditions thanked the State Department for its latest comprehensive report on the subject Oct. 26, but said the administration could move more boldly to protect freedom of conscience in some places.

“To date, President Obama has raised religious freedom in his speeches abroad without those sentiments being translated into concrete policy actions, and our hope is that this report will be the administration’s call to action” said Leonard Leo, chair of the bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, in a statement. “This report can serve as a solid baseline for determining effective U.S. policy toward severe religious-freedom violators. The report makes clear that the United States must do more to ensure reforms are made and implemented.”

The USCIRF release was issued shortly after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released her department’s annual religious-freedom report to journalists.

“Every year, the staff of our office of international religious freedom works with our embassies overseas and experts here in Washington to produce the world’s most comprehensive survey of religious freedom. This report examines how governments in 198 countries and territories are protecting or failing to protect religious freedom,” she said. “The president has emphasized that faith should bring us together, and this year’s report has a special focus on efforts to promote interfaith dialogue and tolerance.”

For example, the report praised Jordanian leaders for their involvement in promoting interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians and Dutch officials for implementing a program to encourage tolerance of religious minorities.

Conditions little improved

But the report also noted that conditions had generally not improved in the world’s worst violators of religious freedom. In particular, it cited the eight countries that the department had already designated as particularly egregious violators of religious liberty — Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.

USCIRF officials have long been urging the State Department — including under previous presidents Bush and Clinton — to designate several other nations as “Countries of Particular Concern,” or CPCs, under the terms of the International Religious Freedom Act. The 1998 law established the commission and a separate State Department office on religious freedom.

In particular, the USCIRF officials said, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam should all be designated CPCs — and the latest State Department report provides significant justification for doing so.

“Both Democratic and Republican administrations have underutilized the ‘country of particular concern’ designation,” Leo said. “As documented in this first report under the Obama administration, religious freedoms are aggressively repressed in the nations that have been designated as CPC countries. But the facts outlined in the report demonstrate just as clearly that countries such as Pakistan and Vietnam meet the CPC statutory requirements and should be so designated.”

In addition, the commission continued to argue — as it did under the previous administration — that the State Department was under-utilizing the tools that the law provided it to encourage CPC designees to improve conditions. The tools — specified by the religious-freedom act — include bilateral negotiations, sanctions and other instruments.

For instance, the State Department has long designated Saudi Arabia a CPC, but has used a waiver that the religious-freedom law provides to avoid enforcement of the status in the hopes that the U.S. ally would voluntarily agree to improvements. While Saudi officials have made some improvements, critics say the nation has shown only a minimal amount of progress.

“Freedom of religion is neither recognized nor protected under the law and is severely restricted in practice” in the oil-rich Middle Eastern kingdom, the department’s report said. Nonetheless, it claimed Saudi Arabia had shown “incremental improvements” over the reporting period.

Asked about a highly publicized effort by Saudi King Abdullah to foster increased dialogue between Muslims and other religious groups, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner acknowledged that strong concerns remained.

“We believe and we support and we encourage the intention of King Abdullah; but at the same time, if you read this report, there is ample reason for very serious concern about the state of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

USCIRF’s Leo said it was past time for the State Department to take action on Saudi Arabia.

“It is time for the United States to lift that waiver and take action under” the terms of the religious-freedom law, he said. “This would demonstrate that the Obama administration cares about this issue, and it gives the United States much-needed leverage to urge the Saudis to make genuine, measurable improvements, including in its education system. That would be truly in our national interest.”

The State Department under Obama and Clinton has yet to determine any CPC designations. The current designations were made by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shortly before she left office last January and announced by the Clinton State Department in March. Posner said Clinton hopes to make her own designations by next January.

–Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

Previous ABP story:

State Dept. reveals predecessors’ designations of freedom violators (3/27)